1 "My spirit is broken, My days are extinguished, The grave is ready for me. |
2 Are not mockers with me? And does not my eye dwell on their provocation? |
3 "Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself. Who is he who will shake hands with me? |
4 For You have hidden their heart from understanding; Therefore You will not exalt them. |
5 He who speaks flattery to his friends, Even the eyes of his children will fail. |
6 "But He has made me a byword of the people, And I have become one in whose face men spit. |
7 My eye has also grown dim because of sorrow, And all my members are like shadows. |
8 Upright men are astonished at this, And the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite. |
9 Yet the righteous will hold to his way, And he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger. |
10 "But please, come back again, all of you, For I shall not find one wise man among you. |
11 My days are past, My purposes are broken off, Even the thoughts of my heart. |
12 They change the night into day; 'The light is near,' they say, in the face of darkness. |
13 If I wait for the grave as my house, If I make my bed in the darkness, |
14 If I say to corruption, 'You are my father,' And to the worm, 'You are my mother and my sister,' |
15 Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it? |
16 Will they go down to the gates of Sheol? Shall we have rest together in the dust?" |